ThinkProgress Home
ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress Logo

Stories tagged with “Illinois”

NEWS FLASH

Rahm Emanuel: ‘I’ll Push For’ Marriage Equality | While Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is not sure if he supports marriage equality, Chicago mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel promised to advocate for legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. “I’ll push for it because it is consistent with the values base, and the practical values base, that I think is right as a city, as a state and as a country,” he said. “If you have two loving adults, that should actually be held up as a positive, whether it’s male or female, but in this case female-female, male-male. I think that’s proper, and we shouldn’t as a state discriminate.” Illinois recently enacted civil unions.

NEWS FLASH

Marriage Equality Introduced In Illinois Legislature | Illinois state Rep. Greg Harris (D) has introduced a marriage equality bill less than a year after the state legalized same-sex civil unions. The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act (HB5170) contains the same provisions as the civil union bill did, and also allows couples to convert their civil unions to marriages. Illinois legislators had been already been strategizing a plan for passing marriage equality, but reports indicated they were aiming for 2013, not this year.

LGBT

Illinois Lawmaker: Discriminating Against Gay And Lesbian Parents Is ‘Common Sense’

By Igor Volsky on Feb 1, 2012 at 9:05 am

Illinois Rep. Dwight Kay (R)

When Illinois legalized civil unions in June, the state insisted that government-funded programs “must allow same-sex couples into their foster and adoptive programs, or lose their state contracts” and any additional state funding. Catholic Charities, decided not to recognize gays and lesbians as parents and refused to comply with the expanded non-discrimination law. As a result, they forfeited more than $30.6 million in contracts, after unsuccessfully suing the state to restore the money.

Now, state lawmakers are “again trying to carve out exceptions to Illinois’ new civil unions statute, saying they shouldn’t be forced to choose between their values and the law.” Rep. Dwight Kay (R) has filed legislation “that would allow religion based or affiliated adoption agencies with state contracts to decline an adoption or foster family home application, as well as licensure and placement, to anyone in a civil union.” Discriminating against gay couples is, “common sense,” he says:

Kay said his legislation is “just another common sense bill.” “Religious based childcare done by Catholic and Lutheran organizations has been an integral part of the state of Illinois,” Kay said. “It has done a better job of handling child care services and it’s done much cheaper.”

Kay’s bill failed last year and his latest measure marks the fifth time legislation “has been filed in the state general assembly in an attempt to water down the state’s civil union law over the past year.” (HT: Care2)

NEWS FLASH

Springfield, Illinois Reverses Decision, Reinstates Civil Union Partner Benefits | LGBT advocates have convinced the Springfield, Illinois Joint Labor/Management Insurance Committee to unanimously reinstate health benefits for the civil union partners of city employees, a complete reversal of its December decision cutting the benefits because they were too costly. The committee had previously reported cost estimates for the benefits nearing $750,000, but the revised estimate for the six affected couples was mysteriously less than 10 percent of that: $66,000. The unexplainable numbers aside, the reversal is an important win for the elected officials and grassroots organizing that protested the original decision. (HT: Chicago Phoenix.)

NEWS FLASH

Illinois Legislators Begin Organizing Marriage Equality Effort | A group of Illinois state legislators have begun meeting with LGBT advocacy organizations to develop strategy to pass marriage equality in the state. Such legislation would not be introduced until 2013, but with the entire General Assembly up for reelection this year, it is a crucial time to encourage support for same-sex marriage. Civil unions became legal in Illinois on June 1 and over 3,700 same-sex couples obtained licenses in the first seven months they were available.

NEWS FLASH

VIDEO: The Illinois Republican Delegation Fleeing From The 99 Percent | Yesterday, over a thousand activists and constituents came to Capitol Hill to confront members of Congress and demand that they support jobs legislation and policies that reduce income inequality. Stand Up Chicago has produced a video showing how a number of Illinois Republicans completely refused to meet with the constituents and instead fled from them. (Walsh did agree to a meeting after a five-hour long occupation, choosing to meet with one man for a five minute-long closed-door conversation.) Watch it:

By Zaid Jilani on Dec 7, 2011 at 12:20 pm

NEWS FLASH

Illinois Couples In Civil Unions Can Files Taxes Jointly | The Illinois Department of Revenue has announced that same-sex couples in civil unions will be able to file their taxes jointly starting next year. Unfortunately, because of the state’s flat tax, couples filing jointly won’t actually save any money. Plus, they will still have to file their federal taxes separately because the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the IRS from recognizing their unions.

LGBT

The Peoria Solution: Catholic Charities Transfers Adoption Services To Non-Catholic Agency

By Zack Ford on Oct 12, 2011 at 1:50 pm

Opponents of equality allege that legal recognition of same-sex couples infringes on their religious beliefs, suggesting legal recognition of same-sex couples would force religious adoption agencies to shut their doors and prevent foster children from finding new homes. When civil unions became law in Illinois this summer, several dioceses filed suit to maintain their state contracts for adoption and foster care services despite their unwillingness to place children with same-sex couples. A judge has ruled the state is not bound to maintain the contracts, but the dioceses have appealed. Now, though, the Peoria diocese is doing the right thing: dropping out of the suit and relinquishing their cases to a secular organization that can abide by the law:

No longer able to provide publicly funded foster care and adoption services unless it complies with Illinois law, Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Peoria announced Thursday that it will withdraw from all state contracts and transfer its staff and caseload to a new nonprofit organization with no affiliation to the Roman Catholic Church. Run by a five-person community board, the Center for Youth and Family Solutions will take on the entire caseload of foster children from Peoria Catholic Charities starting Feb. 1.

John Culhane at The New Civil Rights Movement has dubbed this approach “The Peoria Solution,” and rightfully so, as it is one other groups should recognize as appropriate pursue. The key flaw in equality opponents’ argument is that the law does not force groups like Catholic Charities to shut down as they claim. In fact, the organizations could continue to operate and discriminate against same-sex couples in accordance with their beliefs if they simply relinquish their state funding. What they are suing for is state subsidization of their discrimination against same-sex couples, which they simply aren’t entitled to regardless of their religious beliefs.

Hemant Mehta at the Friendly Atheist points out that secular student groups in Illinois have been doing fundraising to support the work of adoption agencies. Rather than creating divisions along religious lines, groups should follow Peoria’s lead and unite over what is in the best interest of children.

NEWS FLASH

$78 Million | That is roughly how much Cook County in Illinois, which includes Chicago, spends each year to prosecute those arrested for marijuana possession. The Chicago Reader crunches the number to reach the estimate by totaling how much time and money police and courts spend on these cases. At the same time, city and county officials face budget deficits and are laying off public employees. In 2009, Cook County decriminalized small amounts of marijuana in areas managed by the county. County commissioner John Fritchey (D) told the Reader it is at least time to consider legalizing marijuana because of the cost. “People have to unshackle themselves from the stigma surrounding marijuana and recognize it’s time to change existing laws,” Fritchey said.

Justice

After GOP State Senator Uses Her Position To Cover Up Domestic Violence, GOP Pushes Her To Resign

By Tanya Somanader on Oct 4, 2011 at 5:50 pm

State Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R-IL)

Illinois state Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R) is taking heat for using her political office to bury domestic abuse reports made by her husband, Robert Schmidt. Several Lake County police reports and 911 recordings describe at least three incidents since last December in which Schmidt threw “a bunch of stuff” at her husband and locked him outside in 32-degree weather, rammed her Cadillac into his car at least three times, and — most recently — bit her husband drawing blood and hit him with a wireless phone.

Schmidt’s behavior culminated with a preemptive 911 call where she used her former position as Lake County Board Chairman to ask the Lake County Sheriff’s Department to turn a blind eye to her violent behavior. The Lake County Board controls the sheriff department’s budget:

DISPATCHER: “Lake County Sheriff, Allison.”
SUZI SCHMIDT: “Hi Allison. This is Suzi Schmidt the – I was the Lake County Board chairman for ten years. Listen, I’m having a little problem with my husband right now.”
DISPATCHER: “Like a domestic problem?”
SCHMIDT: “Yes, but it’s fine so if he calls you – Bob Schmidt – you can ignore him.”

Police reports on 911 calls paint a picture of a marriage in trouble:

ROBERT SCHMIDT: “We were arguing and then she just starting coming at me and swinging and scratching at my face and then when I tried to fight her off she bit me on one arm.”
SUZI SCHMIDT: “You bet I did.”
ROBERT SCHMIDT: “And I kept on trying to fight her. Did you just hear her? She said ‘you bet I did.’”
SUZI: “You had me on the floor hitting me.”

Schmidt also said on the 911 call that her husband “is afraid of me because he knows I have connections.” Local police report that Schmidt “stated due to the fact she is a state senator, she believes Robert is attempting to derail her career.” She released a statement saying, “I never intended to inappropriately use my title. However, I apologize if any of my comments during this very emotional time seem inappropriate.”

Her fellow Republicans, however, are not buying it and are pressuring her to resign. Illinois GOP Party Chairman Pat Brady said, “We’re in agreement that Suzi needs to make an evaluation in the next couple of days on what she wants to do with her career politically and we think that’ll come in the next couple of days.”

State Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R) called Schmidt’s actions “extremely troubling.” “As public officials, we are held to a higher standard. We cannot and will not tolerate abuse of the public trust,” she said in a statement. “I am currently engaged in conversations with Sen. Schmidt as she makes important decisions regarding her personal and professional life.”

Older

Switch to Mobile